Pros

Cons

Expensive.

Bottom Line

The Microsoft Xbox One X could be the most powerful home game system yet, with a price tag to match.

3 Nov 2017Will Greenwald

Project Scorpio has finally reached its apotheosis as the Xbox One X. Microsoft calls this heavily upgraded version of the Xbox One the world's most powerful console, and discounting gaming PCs, this seems to be the case. It follows the same logic as the PS4 Pro over the PlayStation 4, presenting an improved, 4K-capable gaming experience for a premium price. The $499 system is almost twice as expensive as the Xbox One S, but it could be worth the investment if you have a 4K TV with HDR and want to get the most out of playing games on it.

Smallest Box Yet

Microsoft's miniaturization technology for the Xbox One is nothing short of astounding. The original system was a massive slab with a large, heavy power brick. The One X is downright dainty, packing more processing power into a much smaller frame. It measures 2.4 by 9.8 by 11.5 inches (HWD), making it a bit slimmer than the Xbox One S.

While a variety of special edition designs can be expected, starting with the already presold-out Project Scorpio Edition, the standard Xbox One X is simply a matte black plastic block. Its profile is similar to the One S, with a thick, prominent rectangular slab placed on a slightly smaller slab, creating a lip over the base. The front and top are completely flat, while the sides are perforated. The optical drive has been moved from the top slab, which now bears only a light-up Xbox logo that doubles as a touch-sensitive power button, to the slightly recessed lower slab. It joins a USB port, an eject button, and a controller pairing button.

The back of the One X holds the same ports as the One S: HDMI in and out, two USB ports, an Ethernet port, an optical audio connector, a 3.5mm infrared blaster output, and a power connector. The power supply is completely internal, so you only need to run a power cable from the system to an outlet. The Microsoft Kinect that shipped with the original Xbox One is now completely defunct; you can hook one up with a USB adapter, but just like with the Xbox One S there's no dedicated port for it.

Gamepad and Voice

The included wireless gamepad is standard Xbox One fare, identical to the version included with the One S. You can connect a wired headset to the gamepad through its 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom edge, though an accessory port next to it still enables the use of a headset adapter for on-controller volume and mic control.

While the Kinect has been discarded, you can use Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant with a headset (either connected to the headset or, if the headset itself is wireless and Xbox One-compatible, using the wireless transmitter attached to a USB port). Saying "Hey Cortana" into the headset mic will bring up a Cortana window and let you give various voice commands. Cortana can launch games, control media playback, browse Xbox menus, and give basic information like weather and sports scores. It's a handy feature, but it lags behind Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant in features, especially on the Xbox One platform.

Xbox One Cortana integration lacks support for third-party skills and smart home device control, which you can readily get on the Alexa-equipped Fire TV or Google Assistant-equipped Nvidia Shield TV media streamers. For more on Cortana, see our review of the Harman Kardon Invoke smart speaker.

X Power

The Xbox One X presents a major power upgrade over the Xbox One and Xbox One S, with a jump that markedly exceeds the PS4 Pro's processing improvement over the PlayStation 4. It uses an eight-core AMD CPU clocked at 2.35GHz, which is a 31 percent boost over the Xbox One's processor. That alone is impressive, but it's outdone by the system's new GPU, a 40-core graphics processor with a 1.172GHz clock speed. It's much more powerful than the GPUs in the Xbox One and One S, which are 12-core processors with respective 853 and 914MHz clock speeds. The One X also has twice the RAM as the other systems, which itself is about 50 percent faster than its predecessors' memory.

On paper, the One X is also more powerful than the PS4 Pro, with more cores (40 to 36), a faster clock speed (1,172Mhz to 911Mhz), more memory (12GB to 8GB), and greater memory bandwidth (326GBps to 218GBps). However, because they're very different hardware platforms we can't directly compare them using benchmarks, like we can with gaming PCs or mobile devices. Improved performance also varies from game to game, though among the enhanced titles we've tested on both systems, the Xbox One X seems to more consistently display natively rendered 4K graphics rather than upconverting from a higher-than-1080p resolution.

For comparison, the CyberPower Gamer Master Ultra, a $2,400 desktop PC, boasts an eight-core CPU with a 3.6GHz clock speed and 16GB of RAM (with a maximum of 64GB), and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with its own 8GB of video memory. The CyberPower can render the 3DMark Heaven and Valley tests in Ultra Quality with 4X antialiasing at 4K with respective frame rates of 33 and 42 (and 1080p framerates pushing well past 100). We've yet to test 3DMark on any Xbox One system (or PS4), but even the Xbox One X lacks the power to push anywhere near those numbers.

Left to right: Xbox One X, Xbox One S

HDR and Media Playback

The Xbox One X shares the same high-end media playback features as the One S, including Ultra HD Blu-ray support and high dynamic range (HDR) compatibility. You can watch 4K movies and shows either streamed through services like Amazon Video and Netflix (and Microsoft's own Movies & TV Store), or on physical Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. I watched Jessica Jones on Netflix and the BBC's Planet Earth II on Ultra HD Blu-ray on the Xbox One X, and both played back in crisp, vivid 4K HDR.

Currently, the Xbox One X supports the HDR10 standard, which covers the vast majority of HDR content available on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and streaming services. Dolby Vision isn't supported on the system, so movies available on Vudu will appear in standard dynamic range, even if HDR versions are available. The PS4 Pro also supports HDR for games and video streaming, but can't play Ultra HD Blu-ray discs.

What Games Need

To take advantage of the One X's extra power, games need to be built or patched to use it just like with the PS4 Pro (though Sony later added a Boost Mode to give unspecified performance enhancements to most PS4 games). Several dozen Xbox One games have been confirmed to support the Xbox One X, including a solid handful at launch. Microsoft maintains a running list of Xbox One games optimized for the Xbox One X, noting whether each game simply has some form of performance or graphical enhancement or if it specifically can render at 4K or display HDR graphics. The list currently includes around 200 titles, of which a handful are currently available and patched for use with the Xbox One X, while the others are either in development or waiting on patches.

Besides Xbox One games, the Xbox One X can improve Xbox 360 and original Xbox graphics by rendering them at a higher resolution. Ninja Gaiden Black, a game first released on the original Xbox, displays at a much sharper resolution on the Xbox One X than the 720p max of the original. Textures are still low-resolution compared with modern games, but the 3D models' sharper, clear edges look significantly better.

Game Performance

Gears of War 4 adds a second Video menu to the game with a single option called Rendering Performance. Setting it to Visuals prioritizes 4K rendering and enhanced graphical effects, while setting it to Performance prioritizes frame rate. We saw a similar choice offered in Rise of the Tomb Raider on the PS4 Pro, which is set to receive a patch to bring it up to One X standards.

Visuals Mode forces Gears of War 4 to render at an apparent 4K resolution on 4K TVs, with "supersampling" for 1080p TVs to improve aliasing. On the Sony XBR-65A1E, the game looks impressively crisp and clear in this mode. The opening screen shows extensive skin texture, highlighting the rough pores of the main character. Gameplay seemed to hover around a solid 30 frames per second, playing smoothly while keeping up the graphics quality.

Performance mode noticeably drops that graphical quality to 1080p rendering that's obviously being upscaled, with fewer effects and lower-resolution textures. This enables the game to run at a locked 60 frames per second, making the animation look much smoother.

Both modes are marked improvements over the game on the Xbox One and Xbox One S, but the choice highlights a problem for the self-proclaimed world's most powerful console: The choice is necessary. While 4K60 graphics might be possible in some games, and has been promised for Forza Motorsport 7, the Xbox One X doesn't have the power to give you everything you want in this realm. You need to choose whether you prefer the higher resolution or the higher frame rate. To be fair, either mode is impressive on a $500 console when compared with a similarly priced PC, and the PC hardware necessary to offer the best of both worlds will run several times as much.

Killer Instinct doesn't offer a choice of where the Xbox One X's additional power goes, and instead provides a higher-resolution experience than on the Xbox One and Xbox One S. The game appeared to render at 4K while maintaining the same performance as it does at 1080p. I couldn't determine whether this was natively rendered 4K or a lower resolution (like 1440p) upconverted to output at 4K, but it certainly looked sharper than standard HD.

Super Lucky's Tale is a visually very simple, cartoonish 3D platformer optimized for the Xbox One X with 4K support. It consistently rendered at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second as I played through a few levels, showing off what the hardware can do when it isn't dealing with overly realistic and complicated geography or lighting effects.

Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure is another kids' game optimized for the Xbox One X, with support for 4K resolution and HDR graphics. Like Super Lucky's Tale, it's also relatively simple compared with AAA games, but it indeed seems to render at 4K. HDR enables a wide color gamut with some very nice dynamic range, seen in the vivid colors of the Incredible level and the bright flare of the setting sun in the Ratatouille level.

World of Tanks has also been updated for the Xbox One X, with 4K resolution and HDR. It looks very sharp on the XBR-A1E, and the setting sun in one of the training missions showed an impressive range of contrast between the sun itself and the shadows cast by buildings. The frame rate also appeared very strong in most cases, though some camera pans during combat chugged below 30fps. This is another game that's graphically simple compared with high-end titles, and has been available on the Xbox One for a year and a half, so its ability to take advantage of the One X's power to offer a higher resolution and other graphical improvements is hardly surprising.

1080p Improvement

If you don't have a 4K TV, the Xbox One X will still offer some graphical improvements for certain games. According to Microsoft, the Xbox One X can use "super-sampling" and various filtering techniques to make graphics appear more crisp on a 1080p screen.

I played Gears of War 4 on the Xbox One X on a 1080p monitor, and it offered me the same choice of graphical options as on a 4K TV. Prioritizing Performance set the game at a very smooth 60fps frame rate, while setting the enhancements to Visuals seemed to produce a slightly crisper image thanks to antialiasing techniques that weren't present in the other mode. The frame rate boost is welcome when the game supports it, but the other graphical enhancements are less compelling than on a 4K TV. You'll get some benefit, but it won't likely be worth the extra $200 you'll spend over the Xbox One S.

Worthwhile If You Have the Right TV

The Xbox One X is a technically impressive game console. It can render some games in 4K, some with high dynamic range graphics, and some with both, or with other graphical enhancements the original Xbox One and the Xbox One S simply can't do. It's also a fully functional Ultra HD Blu-ray player that supports HDR10 video playback (though the Xbox One S has the same trick, and is just over half the price). Its power and media features put it past the PS4 Pro as a 4K game console and media hub, but it shares some similar technical limitations for playing games, particularly the need to develop or update each individual title to take advantage of the new hardware.

Without a patch to take advantage of the Xbox One X, you won't notice much improvement. And if a game has been patched, the system might still not be able to render it at 4K, or require you to choose between the higher resolution and better frame rate. It doesn't really compete with a gaming PC's potential to push all the boundaries of performance, but it also doesn't have the four-digit price of a gaming PC. As it stands, the Xbox One X really is the world's most powerful game console, even if it still stands in the shadow of PC hardware.

If you have a 4K, HDR-capable TV and the Xbox One has lots of games you like, the Xbox One X is a worthy upgrade. It can take advantage of your TV in ways the One and One S can't, and has media playback features the PS4 Pro lacks. If you haven't made the jump to 4K yet, the supersampling feature of the XBox One X isn't really worth the nearly doubled price tag compared with the Xbox One S. As with all game consoles, make sure there are games you want to play before you buy. All the hardware performance in the world can't make up for a library that holds little interest for you.

Microsoft Xbox One X

excellent

Bottom Line: The Xbox One X is the most powerful console yet, with 4K and HDR graphics for games that support it. It's still no replacement for a gaming PC, though.

About the Author

Will Greenwald has been covering consumer technology for a decade, and has served on the editorial staffs of CNET.com, Sound & Vision, and Maximum PC. His work and analysis has been seen in GamePro, Tested.com, Geek.com, and several other publications. He currently covers consumer electronics in the PC Labs as the in-house home entertainment expert, reviewing TVs, media hubs, speakers, headphones, and gaming accessories. Will is also an ISF Level II-certified TV calibrator, which ensures the thoroughness and accuracy of all PCMag TV reviews. See Full Bio